Bank Audi : Lebanon's Bank Audi collects $210 million for capital increase

Lebanon's Bank Audi has collected $210 million in a cash contribution in the first phase of a sector-wide equity increase required by the central bank, a Bank Audi official told Reuters on Thursday.

Aiming to strengthen banks' ability to withstand a financial crisis that has hit Lebanon, the central bank instructed banks in November to raise their Common Equity Tier 1 capital, a key measure of financial strength, by 10% through cash injections by the end of the year and a further 10% by June 30 this year.

Bank Audi had previously said it aimed to raise $311 million in the first part of the increase.

The contribution and its conversion into common shares remains subject to the approval of the central bank.

"It is a renewal of the valuable commitment of shareholders to stand by the bank in the prevailing circumstances that the country is going through," the official said.

Lebanon's biggest bank by total assets, Bank Audi is in talks with First Abu Dhabi Bank to sell its Egyptian unity in a move aimed at boosting its liquidity and financial resilience.

(Writing by Tom Perry and Ellen Francis; editing by David Evans)